A total solar eclipse Friday 1 August 2008Friday, August 1 is a red-letter day
for eclipse enthusiasts. On that date, the sun will be partially eclipsed over
an immense area that includes western and central Asia, parts of northern and
central Europe, all of Greenland and even a small slice of northeastern North
America. A total solar eclipse — the first in nearly two and a half years — will
be visible along a narrow track that will start over the Northwest Passage of
Canada, gives a glancing blow to northern Greenland, then shifts southeast
through Siberia and western Mongolia and before ending near the famed Silk Route
of China. The path of totality for this upcoming eclipse is never more than 157
miles (252 km) wide. Where it's visibleThe total eclipse begins at sunrise over
Northern Canada's Queen Maud Gulf, where the moon's umbra will first touch down
on the Earth, resulting in Canada's hosting its first total solar eclipse since
February 26, 1979. As the sun comes into view over the north-northeast horizon
its disk will become completely blocked by the moon. This is in the area of the
famous Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
through the Arctic archipelago of Canada. The various islands of the archipelago
are separated from one another and the Canadian mainland by a series of Arctic
waterways collectively known as the Northwestern Passages. Politically, this
region belongs to Nunavut, the largest and newest of the territories of Canada;
it was separated officially from the vast Northwest Territories on April 1,
1999.Although the umbral shadow narrowly misses the towns of Cambridge Bay on
Victoria Island, and Resolute on Cornwallis Island, its northern edge just clips
the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world: Canada's remote
outpost of Alert, which lies just 508 miles (817 km) from the North Pole and has
a population of just 5. Here, totality will last 43 seconds.Crossing the open
Arctic, the southern half of the totality path slides across the many fjords of
northermost Greenland, coming to within 450 miles (720 km) of the North Pole at
9:38 UT over the Arctic Ocean before turning southeast. Totality sweeps over the
Norwegian island group of Svalbard, while the northern edge of the umbra's path
just grazes Russia's Franz Josef Land island group, then cuts across the
crescent-shaped island of Novaya Zemlya on its way to central Asia. The umbra
first touches the Russian coast on the Yamal Peninsula. Not far inland, greatest
eclipse, producing 2 minutes 27 seconds of totality, is attained near the town
of Nadym (pop. ~46,000), just inland from the boot-shaped Gulf of
Obskaja.Spending part of your summer in Siberia may sound a bit more appealing
upon hearing that the central path passes almost directly over the city of
Novosibirsk, Russia's third most populous city (pop. ~1.4 million) where
totality begins at 10:44 UT and will last 2 minutes 18 seconds. The center of
the path will then follow the Mongolia-China border for several hundred
kilometers, with Olgij, Mongolia getting 1 min 36s of totality. Totality finally
whisks into north-central China, crossing the west end of the Great Wall before
leaving the Earth at a point northeast of the major city of Xi'an (pop. 3.9
million).The northern half of Maine as well as the Canadian Maritime Provinces
will experience a partial eclipse at sunrise. Eclipse expeditionA most unusual
attempt to rendezvous with the moon's shadow will be made by an Airbus A330-200
twin-engine long-range aircraft. Following a flight plan optimized specifically
for the purpose of viewing this eclipse, all of the many unusual requirements of
this flight have been evaluated and satisfied with arrangements by the air
charter company Deutsche Polarflug (AirEvents) which has previously operated
successful over-flights of the North Pole with this same aircraft.Glenn
Schneider, from the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory and a veteran of
26 total eclipses, has worked out the detailed formulation of the flight plan.
He is targeting a point from the high polar north, at approximately +83-degrees
latitude and about 440 nautical miles from the North Pole at an altitude of
37,000 feet above the Arctic Ocean.This will be a unique event in the annals of
solar eclipse-chasing since there are no records of any total solar eclipse
observations as far north as this. While total solar eclipses in the polar
regions are not rare, accessibility is very difficult. Until this juncture in
time (and technology) very high-latitude (north or south) total solar eclipses
have been elusive. The total solar eclipse of 23 November 2003 was the first in
history to have been observed from the Antarctic.Once again it needs repeating:
to look at the sun without proper eye protection is dangerous. Even if you are
in the path of the total eclipse you will need to protect your eyes during the
partial phases.

The Science Behind the Eclipse
Galleries: Solar Eclipse in 2005 and 2006
Local Viewing Circumstances Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer
at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York
Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News
12 Westchester, New York.

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